“It was drinking water from a river,” says head ranger Emil Japarov, 49, describing that rare moment he caught a glimpse of the ‘ghost cat’ at Kyrgyzstan’s Shamshy Reserve. “And then in a second, it was gone.”
Japarov comes from a family of herdsmen in Kyrgyzstan who have roamed these mountains for generations with their livestock. Yet in his entire career spanning two decades he has seen the cat just once or twice. The ‘ghost of the mountains’ as the snow leopard is called in these parts is one of the most elusive cats in the world. In the last 20 years, both the distribution and population of the cat are believed to have shrunk by 50%.
Celebrated author Peter Matthiessen wrote an entire book on his search for this big cat in the Himalayas, but he did not see it even once. Now, almost 40 years after Matthiessen’s book, the 12 countries where the beasts roam—including India—will come together at a conference, hosted by Kyrgyzstan in August this year, to chalk out a roadmap to secure at least 20 healthy snow leopard populations across the globe by 2020.
The small mountain country of Kyrgyzstan has indeed taken the lead in protecting the species internationally. And partnering with it is India.
“India and Kyrgyzstan have many common goals for protecting snow leopards as well as combating climate change. That’s why we are hoping for the highest level of participation from India. We have extended our invitation to the Indian Prime Minister,” says Abdykalyk Rustamov, Director of State Agency on Environment Protection and Forestry (the equivalent of the Ministry of Environment in India).
Alpine feline Snow leopards can kill creatures up to three times their body weight. Photo: Vijay Bedi
Success story
Some of India’s best wildlife brains are now in Kyrgyzstan, working closely with the government there to evolve management plans and train field staff in the latest technologies to protect the animal and its habitat.
Indian wildlife biologist Koustubh Sharma, who works with the U.S.-based Snow Leopard Trust, moved from the heat and dust of the central India to the mountains of central Asia two years ago. He is here to impart technical skills and implement management plans.
India, with an estimated population of 200-400 snow leopards, has much to offer the world through its own conservation success story. Many Kyrgyz scientists and field staff have visited India to understand how communities are involved in conservation, eco-education and ecotourism in areas such as Lahaul-Spiti and Ladakh.
- For its relatively small size, the snow leopard has an extraordinarily long tail—sometimes measuring a metre. It is flexible and helps the animal keep its balance while leaping through treacherous and rocky terrain.
- While asleep, the animal wraps its tail—which contains a large amount of fat and is covered with thick fur—around itself to keep warm.
- The physiology of its throat oddly does not allow the big cat to roar, unlike say a tiger or lion. But it can ‘chuff’. Chuffing, a sort of snort, is a non-aggressive vocalisation generally used when two cats meet. Captive snow leopards are also known to chuff at their human keepers. The animal can purr, mew, hiss and wail too.
Sharma is working with researchers and statisticians from various parts of the world to assess snow leopard populations and the big cat’s prey in the mountains using methods such as camera traps, drones, and sophisticated statistical models. Less than 2% of the cat’s habitat has ever been sampled systematically; the terrain is so tough. “But unless we know how many snow leopards and ungulates there are, how can we protect them?” asks Sharma.
We are in Shamshy Reserve, just 60 miles from Kyrgyzstan’s capital city of Bishkek, where the summit has been planned. Around us are rolling green pastures flanked by jagged snow-draped mountains. A river gushes by and the chorus of bird calls makes a volunteer from Spain and an ornithologist from Switzerland whip out their binoculars and cameras every few minutes. An old hunting lodge, (legend has it that it was built for the Shah of Persia) functions as a base for the field staff in an area where there are few humans for miles around.
Shamshy is resplendent with wildlife, but very little is known about it even today. Neither are full lists of flora and fauna available, and that’s why volunteers, who spend weeks at the lodge making basic checklists, are the first building blocks of a management plan.
This reserve hit international headlines last year when the first camera traps revealed snow leopards. They were photographed at five different locations within the reserve.
The images are the first photographic evidence of the animal in the Kyrgyz Ala-Too Range (Snowy Mountains). It is hard to imagine that the cat had established its home just 30 km from a bustling city.
The valley of Shamshy lies on the northernmost edge of Kyrgyzstan’s snow leopard habitat. For several years, the area was managed as a hunting concession. While hunting is no longer allowed here, local communities, who have grazed their livestock in the area for decades, continue to have the right to do so.
Leading the conservation effort here is biologist Kuban Jumabai Uulu, director of Snow Leopard Foundation-Kyrgyzstan, who believes that the involvement of local communities is central to the success of the programme. The biggest threats to snow leopards are poachers with guns, he says: “Some of them have illegal guns, that is a problem. The idea is to stop them from bringing guns inside the reserve; and protecting the wild ungulates is priority.” The leopard’s principal prey are ibex and Himalayan blue sheep (bharal): they can kill creatures up to three times their body weight.
Local help
Uulu entered into a ‘conservation agreement’ with the local communities. His organisation, and their partner Snow Leopard Trust, offer to train them to make products with wool from livestock and help market them. In return, the local people have to declare an area in the vicinity as a ‘community protected area’ and vow not to support hunters who may venture in. If there are no cases of hunting or poaching, the community receives an annual bonus.
Such a local partnership always helps in conservation. In India, for instance, some of the most successful programmes to protect snow leopards have involved the construction of predator-proof corrals to protect livestock from snow leopard attacks, thereby reducing financial losses for herders.
This, to a large extent, has reduced human-leopard conflict. Responsible tourism interventions such as Himalayan homestays have ensured that tourists who want to sight snow leopards also get a flavour of local culture, helping generate income for the local families. This too has generated goodwill towards the animal.
Not far from Shamshy is Issyk-Kul, a tourist attraction, where a wildlife rescue centre is run by a German NGO, Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU). The three snow leopards that live here are a wretched commentary on the impact of poaching.
One female cat was injured in a trap set by poachers and now has a permanent limp that makes it impossible for her to go back to the wild.
There is one highly endangered Eurasian lynx as well as injured birds such as the golden eagle, all rescued from poachers or traffickers.
As we leave the limping snow leopard to the caring hands of its keepers, we are heartened by the knowledge that a battalion of people—from political leaders to scientists to herdsmen—are galvanising support for the species worldwide. India, Kyrgystan and 10 other countries have agreed to do what they can with support from some of the world’s leading organisations including Global Environment Facility, NABU, Snow Leopard Trust, United Nations Development Program, United States Agency for International Development and World Wildlife Fund.
With some political will, good science and cooperation from local communities, there is hope yet for the mysterious denizen of the mountains. May we never have to bid it dasvidaniya .
The author is a conservation biologist currently working on a book for Oxford University Press.
